361 Tasting Notes

77
drank Sweet Almond by The NecessiTeas
361 tasting notes

I’m anxiously awaiting some tea from Butiki that the USPS site says will be here tomorrow. Yay! In the mean time, I’m kind of bored with all my flavored teas. I had another Sweet Almond Tea with a bit of steamed milk and honey simply because I haven’t had it all that often. But it will be going back on the shelf for awhile. Two days in a row is a bit much for that one. On the plus side, I had a ton of left over steamed milk so my 3.5 year old asked if I could make him a “tea” drink. I added some honey to the milk and a lot cinnamon and we had a little tea party. With the little Bean pouring us some pretend tea out of her fisher price tea pot. All in all, a great way to have tea.

Sil

that sounds like a lovely time :) enjoy your butiki order! Stacy has some amazing teas!

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90

Rainy day here in pdx, surprise surprise, and the early morning is catching up with me. But the kids are asleep (for now) so it’s time for my local chai. I love Townshend’s Tea. They have a great shop/cafe here in portland. Right across from my favorite fabric shop, which is next to the best vegetarian taco cart in town. The trifecta. The rain sucks here, but we have our perks!

FYI — I make my masala chais with my Breville Tea Maker and I let the tea steep in the boiling water for about 10 minutes. Then I use my breville milk cafe (that I bought just for making chais and other tea lattes) to get the milk nice and frothy and then pour them both into my mug with some honey. Yum.

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more

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91

The little bean woke up at 5am today. I got her back to sleep and had just gotten back to sleep again when she was up again at 5:40, got her back down just in time to get the 13 year old up for school. Any second now, I expect to hear the creaking of the 3 year old’s door. I need something strong this morning.

I’ve been trying to cull through my overly eager tea collection and found this tin of rishi that I must have bought at the store when I got my breville and was buying any and all tea that looked interesting. Anyway, as I’m knee deep in a genmai matcha phase, it’s perfect timing. Except that its labeled best by nov 2012. Oh well.

It says to use 1 TABLEspoon per 8oz. That’s crazy! So in my 16oz mug, I put 6 tsp of tea. Steeped for a minute and boom! That S—- is strong! I even looked on their website to see if it was a misprint. Nope.

I like it a lot. It’s nice and toasty and the right amount of sweet for me (which isn’t much — in fact, my ultimate version of this tea would be a tad salty). But seriously, 1 Tbsp per cup means I’m going to blow through this already small tin, and considering I bought it at whole foods, I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.

Definitely glad I found it buried back there though. It was probably even better back in November!

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drank Hoji Cha by Sugimoto America
361 tasting notes

This is a really tasty Hoji Cha. Could be my favorite so far but I’ve only tried a few. So far the first steep is living up to my expectations

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100
reviewed One Touch Tea Maker by Breville
361 tasting notes

I love this thing. I use it for brewing all my black teas. Being a mom of two young kids, I was always forgetting my tea and ending up with really bitter cold tea. Not a problem anymore. I do my green teas in my cast iron pot so that i can do multiple steeps.

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77
drank Sweet Almond by The NecessiTeas
361 tasting notes

I just made this. A nice afternoon treat on a rainy portland day! If you like almond, you can’t go wrong with this tea. It really does have sweet flavor to it, but doesn’t taste fake either. I really enjoyed it. I added a little raw honey and some steamed milk and made a latte out of it. Really good stuff. If you like almond, of course.

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87

This is a pretty decent chai when making it the quick way by steeping the tea in boiling water for about 8 minutes and then adding milk and honey. It’s an AMAZING chai when you simmer it on the stove with the milk in there. My new trick is to steep in the water and then add steamed milk. Faster than the stovetop method, but still tastes really good.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more

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91
drank Starry Night by Art of Tea
361 tasting notes

After trying many vanilla teas, a black vanilla tea was the first tea that got me interested in loose leaf tea, this one has been my go to for awhile. The vanilla doesn’t have an artificial taste to it and the black tea is strong enough to stand up to it. The little white stars are cute, but I could take them or leave them.

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90

I’ve been going through a masala chai phase. Seems like some just have too much clove or not enough cardamon or ginger. I really like this one. It’s pretty light on the clove and heavy on the rest of the spices including cinnamon, but not in a overly spiced way. In fact I could almost take a little more pepper of some kind, but all in all, it’s my go to chai right now.

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100

This is one of my favorite teas. Really has a pastry flavor to it. I never let my cupboard run out before ording more.

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Profile

Bio

I love tea. And I love beer. I spent my twenties thoroughly enjoying all that beer has to offer but now that I’m into my thirties and a stay at home mom of 2 little kids and 1 big kid, I spend more time enjoying tea.

I joined steepster in Feb 2013 and it’s crazy how much my tastes have changed since joining. Before, I liked cream and honey in all teas and loved mostly dessert blacks. Now I almost rarely drink them, but enjoy them from time to time. What I love more than anything are straight rich black teas, Fujian, Laoshan, Rizhao, etc… I also love pretty much any black tea that the little leaf hoppers have gotten their teeth on.

I’m still not too into the green/white/oolong varieties. I keep trying to but my tastes are evolving pretty slowly on that front.

Overall, I just enjoy tea. Something about it that just settles me.

Location

Portland, OR

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